Help for Stay in Dolomites

Ortisei- stay at Hotel Grones.

We stayed at Aparthotel La Tambra in Santa Cristina Val Gardena in June. The town is a lot smaller and quieter than Ortesei. We had a car, and they offer free parking across the street. We loved it. We stayed in a family apartment and studio, each with a view. Definitely eat at their restaurant. The steaks and pizzas were the best we had on our 3 week trip.

For hikes, every lift offers a different view. We didn’t do extensive hikes, but enjoyed the views. We loved Col Raiser, Seceda and Seiser Alm.

Here is my trip report: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/dolomites-june-2023-76e7c26c-52f9-478e-8f05-682145f531a9

We're there now (Ortisei) for a week and finding it quite enjoyable. We too, spending summers in Colorado are used to 10+ mile hiking days which can certainly be done here but we find ourselves doing less. Here, because of the lift system, it takes less time and miles to get to the interesting places. Then of course, there are the very pleasant refugios for food and drink breaks with a view en route.

I suspect where you stay would be directly related to when you go. Ortisei now is very calm and quiet but as a summer resident of a mountain town I can see where it could be a lot busier other times. We might want something smaller other times Also some stores and restaurants are closed or limiting hours in the interlude between summer and winter. On the other hand, the lifts and trails are uncrowded and we've had excellent hiking weather.

I second Suki’s suggestion -/ Hotel Grones in Ortisei. Get the half board package. The food is fantastic.

We like to stay on Alpe di Siusi, but Ortesei is nice too, and offers a nice “town”:atmosphere with shops, bakeries, and restaurants. But if you take half-board at your hotel as suggested, you won’t need the restaurants.

I can suggest two great hikes, one on each side of the town:

1) Ride the Seceda lift in two stages to the top. Hike up from the lift the short distance to the summit cross for great views. Then take the obvious trail heading down along the ridge, with great views to the valley on the other side. This trail has concrete pavers sunk into the ground for good traction on the downhill slope. Continue the traverse to Forcella Pana, then navigate to Refugio Firenze for a lunch stop (I seem to recall it is Trail 6 but not sure about that). After a nice lunch, head down to the top of the ColmRaiser lift to ride down to Santa Cristina, from which you can walk back to Ortesei. Or you can hike down to Ortesei from Refugio Firenze, passing the pretty Sankt Jakob church if you prefer.

2). Ride the Mont Seuc gondola up the other side to reach Alpe di Siusi. Once on top, you can pick a trail and head wherever you like—it’s all good, and there are numerous huts scattered around for a nice lunch. You can return to the lift to ride down, or take a different lift down to Santa Cristina, or hike down to Ortesei on the marked trail (2.5 hours according to the sign).

Ortisei is a great town. Or is it Sankt Ulrich? Urtijëi? You get 3 languages to pick from.

I recommend Ortisei for a short visit like yours because it has 3 chair lifts from within the town. You won't need to get into your car even once. Each lift takes you somewhere completely different with its own hikes.

Basically, Ortisei is the choice that requires very little planning on your part. So that's super convenient. But you do have to figure out how you're getting there, since there's no airport or train station. It's about a 4.5 hour drive from Munich Airport, 3.5 from Venice Airport. I did the drive from Munich because I can get non-stop flights from where I live. Just be sure to figure out in advance how to pay for Austria's highway tolls.

Forgot to mention, I stayed at Gardena Grödnerhof and liked it quite a lot. The only thing is that the only dinner option is a bit formal, so you'll need to walk into town for a more casual dinner option, if you prefer.

Here is a little secret about the Dolomites: everyone I know who has been there, and stayed in a family-run hotel with half-board, absolutely loves the place they stayed, and will recommend it above all others. That makes it tough to choose.

But on the other hand, it is hard to go wrong.

We stayed three nights in Ortisei to be near Alpe di Siusi & Seceda and three nights in Braies to be near Lago di Braies & Tre Cime. We enjoyed both places, particularly the lovely spot on the mountain in Braies, and the food in both was fabulous. Two completely different experiences in small family-run lodging, both good.

For reference, we stayed at Pension Villa Luise and Berggasthaus Agritur Moserhof, with half board in each.

We're staying in Ortisei in May this year. I noticed that many hotels are not listed on the sites that I am used to (booking.com, etc). I was dreading having to search prices and availability for each individual hotel. I finally stumbled accross https://www.valgardena.it/en/, which lists many of the local hotels and is easily searchable.

Tip: I also found that many hotels had a minimum 3 day stay requirement listed, however emailing a request to the hotel for a shorter stay and they accepted.

Unless I missed it, you don't mention when you're going. We were disappointed on an early June trip when the Seceda lift was not going to open until June 15. You might want to check the lift opening dates before you make plans if you're going earlier or later in the season.

Suisi was a great base for hiking the Alpe di Suisi. Stayed in the very clean Garni Hauenstein. The hostess was delightful and served a very tasty welcome drink. Liked the area very much.

We moved to Ortesei/Val Gardena to hike Seceda. But were there a few days before the gondola to Seceda opened. We took cable car up to Col Reiser and loved it, but regret we didn't get to see the jagged hillside of Seceda because we were there on June 12 (my husband is 82 and hike from Col Reiser seemed too long). It might have been better to go up to Receisa. We took a beautiful ride down to Marmolada that was spectacular from Val Gardena as well.

Then headed east to Cortina and up to Lago di Braies. Lago di Braies is beautiful but a long way from Ortisei.